The definition of technology according to Oxford dictionary[1] is "The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry". It can be machinery, devices or practices that has been developed with the help of scientific knowledge. Technology development for agricultural productive capacity is the development of modern technology to increase output of food-crops on a given piece of land. This includes switching from manual labor to machines, such as tractors and threshers. The use of machines has freed up labor, so that less people can now produce the same amount or more food than with non-technological agriculture[2] . This has freed up a big part of the labor force. The use of agricultural technology allows for controlling more natural factors which gives the farmer a greater chance of deciding the output of food crops, compared to being solely at the terms of nature. This can be done with the help of machinery, genetically modifying crops and the use of fertilizers. The use of technology in agriculture has been defining for modern agriculture. [3] . The development of this technology is dependent on the amount of investment in agriculture.[4] . Modern agriculture has substantially increased agricultural output and productivity during the past decades . [5]
Technology development for agricultural productive capacity is the underlying factor of economic development, since the freed up labour force can work in manufacturing or services, increasing total economic output. During the 20th century, Finland underwent a remarkable structural change and today only a fraction of the population works within agriculture even though the majority did so in the early 1900s.[6]
Technology development and food
In most developing countries the productivity of agriculture is very low, compared to the situation in industrialised countries. [7]
The productive capacity in agriculture naturally determines how much food can be produced. Given the scarcity of arable land, the productive capacity plays a crucial role in food production. [8] Technology determining the productivity might not only be machines, it might also be using modern technology on the plants themselves in forms of genetical modification and application of pesticides and fertilizer. An agricultural technology that has enabled great productivity growth is the use of artificial nitrogen fertilizer.[9] These fertilizers have been produced since the first half of the 20th centruty. By using fertilizers, the productivity of European fields have more than doubled. Especially wheat yields have become much larger due to the use of nitrogen fertilizers.[10]
Although these technologies might increase the output, there are certain health issues associated with the use of pesticides which is one reason to why alternative food networks that shun some technology development in agriculture has become commonplace. [11] Intenser use of land has positive effects from an environmental sustainability point of view.
New technologies also include growing food indoors, without using soil and cycling the nutrients in an artificially made, closed system. Different types of greenhouses use different amounts of technology, but the most technically advanced greenhouses can be used to micromanage the "climate" inside the greenhouse to be most favourable to a certain type of plant.[12] This type of growing technology might become more important in the future when outdoors growing becomes risky due to climate change.[13]
Technology and sustainable development goals
Sustainable use of technology plays an important role in reaching SDG 2 Zero Hunger. Globally, food production has kept increasing when technology for agricultural productive capacity has developed. More intense use of land has allowed the population to grow, food production to grow without a proportionate growth in land use. [14] This has, however, not automatically meant that hunger and famines have been eradicated. Instead, this agricultural technology remains unused in the poorest regions where famines are most common. [15] On the other hand, there is over production of food in richer countries where technology is much further developed[16] .
Most modern agricultural technology is too costly for small scale family farms, yet this is the most common way of agricultural production in countries where hunger crises have occurred in the past decades. However, not all technology is too costly. Information technology enabled by cheap mobiles are already providing many small-scale farmers with important information such as weather forecasts and climate predictions, which helps them make better choices about when to sow or harvest and which crops to plant. Further spreading the use of such technology is hoped to help reach SDG2 Zero Hunger. [17]
Corporate praxis
In industrialised countries, big multinational agriculture companies have invested significant amounts of capital into developing agricultural technology. An example is Monsanto who genetically modified crops. Monsanto has sold their crops not only to industrialised countries but also to developing countries.[18] However, Monsanto has received a lot of criticism[19] after cases where farmers have seriously indebted themselves in order to buy seeds from Monsanto. [20]
Monsanto describes themselves as a "sustainable agriculture company" [21] Genetic modification of plants is one of the most debated agricultural technologies. [22] Monsanto is the largest biotechnology firm globally and has developed a wide range of GMO grops that are farmed around the world. Monsanto has labelled themselves as "pro the poor" since selling crops resistant to pests and varying weather to poor countries. One of the worlds largest nitrogen fertilizer producers is Agrium. [23] Agrium operates mostly in the Americas. Their sustainability efforts focus on helping to feed a growing population by enabling more efficient agricultural output by the use of their fertilizers. [24]
The agrobusiness is lucrative and there is constantly development of new techniques and machines. A high concentration of agribusiness has enabled large corporations to achieve economics of scale and high profitability.[25] The video below shows some of the top agricultural technology inventions in farming.
Critique
Many of the widely used agro-technologies have had an impact on other areas of the nature. This impact has not always been very positive. One example is climate change, that is amplified by the use of fossil fuels in agricultural technologies such as tractors and threshers. [26] Agro-technology has also had an enormous impact on the nitrogen cycle. This kind of technology is also widely criticised for being to expensive to be affordable to farmers in developing countries.
Modern technology has allowed for nitrogen in the form of N2 from the atmosphere to be captured and transformed into for example ammonia, NH3 which is nitrogen in a form that plants can use to grow. The manufactured fertilizer have led to there being too much nitrogen in the soil, which damages eco-systems.[27] This excess nitrogen is one of the most challenging problems in today´s society[28] .
Technology for genetically modifying plants have many advantages but also many risks. There might be some health risks for humans. Eating crops that are genetically modified to withstand more pesticides are potentially linked to cancer. There are also environmental risks, such as genes unexpectedly transferring to other plants where they are unwanted. For example, weeds could become resistant to herbicides.[29]
Examples from Finland
Technology development has been extremely important for Finnish agriculture. Technical inventions have also been made in Finland. One of the most important inventions is the AIV-technology for preserving grass for animal feed.This technology has been rewarded with a Nobel price. By eating this type of feed instead of dry hay, cows were able to produce more milk all year round, and not just in the summer when the grass was green.[30]
Another agricultural technology, that is said to be supporting sustainable development, is the increased production of biogas in Finland. Finland has large scale production of cattle and their excrements could be turned into fuel with the use of modern technology.[31] Finland has very high subsidies to agriculture. One of the goals of these subsidies is to increase the technology innovation in order to increase the agricultural productivity.[32]
^ The Monsanto Tribunal is an international civil society initiative to hold Monsanto accountable
Availible: ://www.facebook.com/pg/monsantotribunal/about/?ref=page_internal
^ Eric F. Lambina and Patrick Meyfroidt. 2011. Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity
Availible: http://www.pnas.org/content/108/9/3465.short
(Accessed 10.4.2017)
^ Chandrasekharan Nair Kesavachandran, Mohammad Fareed, Manoj Kumar Pathak, Vipin Bihari, Neeraj Mathur, Anup Kumar Srivastava. 2009.
Adverse Health Effects of Pesticides in Agrarian Populations of Developing Countries. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Vol 200. Volume 200 of the series Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology pp 33-52
Availible: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-0028-9_2
^ Thomas K. Rudela,1, Laura Schneiderb, Maria Uriartec, B. L. Turner IId, Ruth DeFriesc, Deborah Lawrencee, Jacqueline Geogheganf, Susanna Hechtg, Amy Ickowitzf, Eric F. Lambinh, Trevor Birkenholtzb, Sandra Baptistai and Ricardo Grauj. 2008.
Agricultural intensification and changes in cultivated areas, 1970–2005. Reviewed by William C. Clark, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved October 20, 2009 (received for review December 11, 2008)
Availible: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/49/20675.long
^ Sustainability Challenges and Solutions at the Base of the Pyramid
Business, Technology and the Poor
Edited by Prabhu Kandachar and Minna Halme
^ Sylvester,
Gerard 2017. SUCCESS STORIES ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6733e.pdf
^ The Monsanto Tribunal is an international civil society initiative to hold Monsanto accountable
://www.facebook.com/pg/monsantotribunal/about/?ref=page_internal
The definition of technology according to Oxford dictionary[1] is "The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry". It can be machinery, devices or practices that has been developed with the help of scientific knowledge. Technology development for agricultural productive capacity is the development of modern technology to increase output of food-crops on a given piece of land. This includes switching from manual labor to machines, such as tractors and threshers. The use of machines has freed up labor, so that less people can now produce the same amount or more food than with non-technological agriculture[2] . This has freed up a big part of the labor force. The use of agricultural technology allows for controlling more natural factors which gives the farmer a greater chance of deciding the output of food crops, compared to being solely at the terms of nature. This can be done with the help of machinery, genetically modifying crops and the use of fertilizers. The use of technology in agriculture has been defining for modern agriculture. [3] . The development of this technology is dependent on the amount of investment in agriculture.[4] . Modern agriculture has substantially increased agricultural output and productivity during the past decades . [5]
Technology development for agricultural productive capacity is the underlying factor of economic development, since the freed up labour force can work in manufacturing or services, increasing total economic output. During the 20th century, Finland underwent a remarkable structural change and today only a fraction of the population works within agriculture even though the majority did so in the early 1900s.[6]
Technology development and food
In most developing countries the productivity of agriculture is very low, compared to the situation in industrialised countries. [7]
The productive capacity in agriculture naturally determines how much food can be produced. Given the scarcity of arable land, the productive capacity plays a crucial role in food production. [8] Technology determining the productivity might not only be machines, it might also be using modern technology on the plants themselves in forms of genetical modification and application of pesticides and fertilizer. An agricultural technology that has enabled great productivity growth is the use of artificial nitrogen fertilizer.[9] These fertilizers have been produced since the first half of the 20th centruty. By using fertilizers, the productivity of European fields have more than doubled. Especially wheat yields have become much larger due to the use of nitrogen fertilizers.[10]
Although these technologies might increase the output, there are certain health issues associated with the use of pesticides which is one reason to why alternative food networks that shun some technology development in agriculture has become commonplace. [11] Intenser use of land has positive effects from an environmental sustainability point of view.
New technologies also include growing food indoors, without using soil and cycling the nutrients in an artificially made, closed system. Different types of greenhouses use different amounts of technology, but the most technically advanced greenhouses can be used to micromanage the "climate" inside the greenhouse to be most favourable to a certain type of plant.[12] This type of growing technology might become more important in the future when outdoors growing becomes risky due to climate change.[13]
Technology and sustainable development goals
Sustainable use of technology plays an important role in reaching SDG 2 Zero Hunger. Globally, food production has kept increasing when technology for agricultural productive capacity has developed. More intense use of land has allowed the population to grow, food production to grow without a proportionate growth in land use. [14] This has, however, not automatically meant that hunger and famines have been eradicated. Instead, this agricultural technology remains unused in the poorest regions where famines are most common. [15] On the other hand, there is over production of food in richer countries where technology is much further developed[16] .
Most modern agricultural technology is too costly for small scale family farms, yet this is the most common way of agricultural production in countries where hunger crises have occurred in the past decades. However, not all technology is too costly. Information technology enabled by cheap mobiles are already providing many small-scale farmers with important information such as weather forecasts and climate predictions, which helps them make better choices about when to sow or harvest and which crops to plant. Further spreading the use of such technology is hoped to help reach SDG2 Zero Hunger. [17]
Corporate praxis
In industrialised countries, big multinational agriculture companies have invested significant amounts of capital into developing agricultural technology. An example is Monsanto who genetically modified crops. Monsanto has sold their crops not only to industrialised countries but also to developing countries.[18] However, Monsanto has received a lot of criticism[19] after cases where farmers have seriously indebted themselves in order to buy seeds from Monsanto. [20]
Monsanto describes themselves as a "sustainable agriculture company" [21] Genetic modification of plants is one of the most debated agricultural technologies. [22] Monsanto is the largest biotechnology firm globally and has developed a wide range of GMO grops that are farmed around the world. Monsanto has labelled themselves as "pro the poor" since selling crops resistant to pests and varying weather to poor countries. One of the worlds largest nitrogen fertilizer producers is Agrium. [23] Agrium operates mostly in the Americas. Their sustainability efforts focus on helping to feed a growing population by enabling more efficient agricultural output by the use of their fertilizers. [24]
The agrobusiness is lucrative and there is constantly development of new techniques and machines. A high concentration of agribusiness has enabled large corporations to achieve economics of scale and high profitability.[25] The video below shows some of the top agricultural technology inventions in farming.
Critique
Many of the widely used agro-technologies have had an impact on other areas of the nature. This impact has not always been very positive. One example is climate change, that is amplified by the use of fossil fuels in agricultural technologies such as tractors and threshers. [26] Agro-technology has also had an enormous impact on the nitrogen cycle. This kind of technology is also widely criticised for being to expensive to be affordable to farmers in developing countries.
Modern technology has allowed for nitrogen in the form of N2 from the atmosphere to be captured and transformed into for example ammonia, NH3 which is nitrogen in a form that plants can use to grow. The manufactured fertilizer have led to there being too much nitrogen in the soil, which damages eco-systems.[27] This excess nitrogen is one of the most challenging problems in today´s society[28] .
Technology for genetically modifying plants have many advantages but also many risks. There might be some health risks for humans. Eating crops that are genetically modified to withstand more pesticides are potentially linked to cancer. There are also environmental risks, such as genes unexpectedly transferring to other plants where they are unwanted. For example, weeds could become resistant to herbicides.[29]
Examples from Finland
Technology development has been extremely important for Finnish agriculture. Technical inventions have also been made in Finland. One of the most important inventions is the AIV-technology for preserving grass for animal feed.This technology has been rewarded with a Nobel price. By eating this type of feed instead of dry hay, cows were able to produce more milk all year round, and not just in the summer when the grass was green.[30]
Another agricultural technology, that is said to be supporting sustainable development, is the increased production of biogas in Finland. Finland has large scale production of cattle and their excrements could be turned into fuel with the use of modern technology.[31] Finland has very high subsidies to agriculture. One of the goals of these subsidies is to increase the technology innovation in order to increase the agricultural productivity.[32]
Quiz created by Felicia Aminoff with GoConqr
External links
Availible: ://www.facebook.com/pg/monsantotribunal/about/?ref=page_internal
http://ies-webarchive-ext.jrc.it/ies/our-activities/scientific-achievements/nitrogen.html
Open source
1.Eurostat 2017.
Agri-environmental indicator - gross nitrogen balance. Availible:
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Agri-environmental_indicator_-_gross_nitrogen_balance
2.
Brown, David A. 2015. U.S. Agriculture Outlook
http://worldagnetwork.com/the-modern-greenhouse/
3.
Dana Gunders. 2012. Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill
Availible: https://www.indianasna.org/content/indianasna/documents/NRDC_Wasted_Food_Report.pdf
(Accessed 10.4.2017)
4.
Luke, Luonnonvarakeskus 2017. Ilmastonmuutokseen sopeudutaan nyt – tutkijat listasivat tärkeimmät toimet
https://www.luke.fi/ilmastonmuutokseen-sopeudutaan-tutkijat-listasivat-tarkeimmat-toimet/
Motes http://globalharvestinitiative.org/Documents/Motes%20-%20Modern%20Agriculture%20and%20Its%20Benefits.pdf
http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x9447e/x9447e03.htm
Availible: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574007209040730 (Accessed 10.4.2017)
Availible: http://www.pnas.org/content/108/9/3465.short
(Accessed 10.4.2017)
Agri-environmental indicator - gross nitrogen balance. Availible:
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Agri-environmental_indicator_-_gross_nitrogen_balance
http://vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/uploads/docs/smil-article-2005-nitr.eu.2005.pdf
Adverse Health Effects of Pesticides in Agrarian Populations of Developing Countries. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology Vol 200. Volume 200 of the series Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology pp 33-52
Availible: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-0028-9_2
http://worldagnetwork.com/the-modern-greenhouse/
https://www.luke.fi/ilmastonmuutokseen-sopeudutaan-tutkijat-listasivat-tarkeimmat-toimet/
Agricultural intensification and changes in cultivated areas, 1970–2005. Reviewed by William C. Clark, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved October 20, 2009 (received for review December 11, 2008)
Availible: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/49/20675.long
Business, Technology and the Poor
Edited by Prabhu Kandachar and Minna Halme
September 2008 156 x 234 mm
https://www.greenleaf-publishing.com/sustainability-challenges-and-solutions-at-the-base-of-the-pyramid
Availible: https://www.indianasna.org/content/indianasna/documents/NRDC_Wasted_Food_Report.pdf
(Accessed 10.4.2017)
Gerard 2017. SUCCESS STORIES ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6733e.pdf
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066150903498754
://www.facebook.com/pg/monsantotribunal/about/?ref=page_internal
The Seeds Of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming
Availible: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-seeds-of-suicide-how-monsanto-destroys-farming/5329947.
(Accessed 10.4.2017)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066150903498754
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-12/agrium-potash-corp-to-combine-in-fertilizer-merger-of-equals
http://www.agrium.com/system/files/agrium_2014-15_sustainability_foldout_summary_final_081716.pdf
by John Wilkinson. 2009.
https://monthlyreview.org/2009/09/01/globalization-of-agribusiness-and-developing-world-food-systems/
Piero Conforti and Mario Giampietro
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880997000480
edited by Mark A. Sutton, Clare M. Howard, Jan Willem Erisman, Gilles Billen, Albert Bleeker, Peringe Grennfelt, Hans van Grinsven, Bruna Grizzetti
https://books.google.fi/books?id=oX3oFqAM9GkC&pg=PR1&lpg=PR1&dq=nitrogen+cycle+eu+assessment&source=bl&ots=xjHk3F5n77&sig=lWv34b_b9k9Mqpn1PaxIsEYGW20&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWqp-d7NXTAhVmLZoKHW_2C4sQ6AEIPzAE#v=onepage&q=nitrogen%20cycle%20eu%20assessment&f=false
http://ies-webarchive-ext.jrc.it/ies/our-activities/scientific-achievements/nitrogen.html
Genetically modified organisms: do the benefits outweigh the risks?
://publications.lsmuni.lt/object/elaba:5191579/
Tiede & tekniikka 26.04.2017
http://www.maaseuduntulevaisuus.fi/tiede-tekniikka/tekniikan-historia-aiv-rehu-on-t%C3%A4rkein-itsen%C3%A4isen-suomen-keksint%C3%B6-1.186436
Markus Latvala
http://www.bionova.fi/sites/default/files/sy_24_2009.pdf
http://mmm.fi/maataloustukien-merkitys1